The Second Book of Paradise Lost, by John Milton, opens at the Council of War amongst the demons of Hell. Moloch, demon warrior, passionately advocates for open warfare. On the other hand, Belial, the sarcastic demon, uses asperity to criticize Moloch's argument. This Council, particularly the arguments that Moloch and Belial present, represent two separate schools of thought: warfare at any cost and existence at any price.
Moloch, upon getting his chance to speak, wastes no time in expressing his opinion: open warfare with heaven. He is full of mixed emotions at this point, such as: shame, insult, torment, arrogance, and vengeance. These fuel the passionate rhetoric which he gives in support of his stand.
The shame which they all feel, comes from the loss of Heaven or more specifically the loss to Heaven, in their rebellious conflict. Another part of the shame may be the result of their loss, which is Hell. They were accustomed to a beautiful Paradise, yet they reside in a Paradise Lost. Their shame of defeat is thus added to be their exile to this dismal, dark, burning place.
Insult, is added from the pursuit of the fallen angels as they descend into the deep. The battle is over, yet they are still being pursued by God and by His angels. There is a Latin sense to this, as the footnote suggests, that they were being stamped or danced upon, by the Heavenly Hosts. Defeat must of been humiliating (shameful) enough, yet this feeling of being "stamped upon" must of just added salt to their "wounds."
Torment, is an emotion either caused by the demons being in actual torment by their surroundings or by the actual separation between themselves and Heaven. The actual physical landscape, is one of burning la...
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... make-up of their characters. Moloch, is a fallen angel who is mentioned earlier as a "horrid King" to whom children were sacrificed, a warrior demon who fights at all costs. Belial is the most dissolute and sophisticated of the fallen angels, speaking smoothly and seemingly reasonable, however it is all for his "ignoble ease" rather than for honorable action. Both characters and their speeches are at polar opposites. One advocates war, while the other advocates inaction. Both speeches are effective in getting their points across. Moloch uses syntax to provoke passionate emotional responses and channels the responses in his aggressive direction. Belial uses descriptive language to play on the fears of the other demons to cow them to his point of view. These dynamic speeches give a point of view for the indecisive demons that truly represent their speakers.
Seated in his fire-filled chair, the devil dominates the bottom-center of the painting. With the very dark lighting the mood towards this half of the painting is dark, gloomy, lonely, and unpleasing. Frankcen illustrates the true biblical message of hell. What is very interesting about this painting is how hell is extremely large, filled with a mass of people, and takes up about half of the painting. However, some of the people are babies. This alludes to the fact that some people are could possibly be born evil and that their fate is inevitable. A majority of the people set in hell are still looking up worshiping heaven while regretting their mistakes. The painter is trying to illustrate how many people do not make the right choices and end up miserable. The way Fans paints hell in this picture is very similar to the way Dante describes hell in this book The Inferno. Even though there are not nine layers of hell in this painting the descriptions are quite similar. The people standing in line waiting for their punishments, the dark gloomy vibe, and a mixture of young and old souls, are represented in the painting and in Dante’s story (1614-1702). Francken’s goal when interpreting hell is to not only make his viewers fear it, but come to the realization that is where a majority of people end
Christopher Murphy, Construction and Rhetoric: A Study of Satan in Paradise Lost, A Journal of Undergraduate Literary Criticism and Creative Research, 2012
... that explore the vastness of human suffering. However, though they both state that human suffering is unavoidable, there is a sense of levity in the Inferno that is absent in King Lear. The final message of King Lear implies the idea that human suffering is universal and that one’s choices not only cause one’s own suffering, but also invariably lead to the suffering of others. King Lear ends on a note of immense sorrow, while Inferno’s final message is a much more hopeful one, giving voice to the idea that the ubiquity of human suffering does not mean that all hope is lost. In Inferno, suffering is an aspect of the human experience, but not the only aspect, and it does not have to define one’s life.
...ards monstrous figures and sympathy towards those who seem to be tortured unjustly. In his perverse education, with instruction from Virgil and the shades, Dante learns to replace mercy with brutality, because sympathy in Hell condones sin and denies divine justice. The ancient philosopher Plato, present in the first level of Hell, argues in The Allegory of the Cave that truth is possible via knowledge of the Form of the Good. Similarly, Dante acquires truth through a gradual understanding of contrapasso and the recognition of divine justice in the afterlife. Ultimately, Dante recognizes that the actions of the earthly fresh are important because the soul lives on afterwards to face the ramifications. By expressing his ideas on morality and righteousness, Dante writes a work worth reading, immortalizes his name, and exalts the beliefs of his Christian audience.
Many arguments have been made that Dante’s Inferno glimmers through here and there in Milton’s Paradise Lost. While at first glance the two poems seem quite drastically different in their portrayal of Hell, but scholars have made arguments that influence from Dante shines through Milton’s work as well as arguments refuting these claims. All of these arguments have their own merit and while there are instances where a Dantean influence can be seen throughout Paradise Lost, Milton’s progression of evil and Satan are quite different from Dante. Dante’s influence on Milton is noted by many scholars and is very apparent in several instances throughout Paradise Lost, however, Milton shows a progression of evil through his own vision of Satan and creates a Hell that is less meticulously constructed than Dante’s and more open to interpretation.
Inferno, the first part of Divina Commedia, or the Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri, is the story of a man's journey through Hell and the observance of punishments incurred as a result of the committance of sin. In all cases the severity of the punishment, and the punishment itself, has a direct correlation to the sin committed. The punishments are fitting in that they are symbolic of the actual sin; in other words, "They got what they wanted." (Literature of the Western World, p.1409) According to Dante, Hell has two divisions: Upper Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of incontinence, and Lower Hell, devoted to those who perpetrated sins of malice. The divisions of Hell are likewise split into levels corresponding to sin. Each of the levels and the divisions within levels 7,8, and 9 have an analogous historical or mythological figure used to illustrate and exemplify the sin.
Dante’s Inferno presents the reader with many questions and thought provoking dialogue to interpret. These crossroads provide points of contemplation and thought. Dante’s graphic depiction of hell and its eternal punishment is filled with imagery and allegorical meanings. Examining one of these cruxes of why there is a rift in the pits of hell, can lead the reader to interpret why Dante used the language he did to relate the Idea of a Just and perfect punishment by God.
about the war and his lack of place in his old society. The war becomes
Paradise Lost is an epic poem portraying John Milton’s theological standpoints. The theme is knowledge and the fall of man. Milton uses his poem to state some of his theological beliefs and his personal reflections. Milton wrote Paradise Lost in the 17th century but uses influence from classic poets. Milton’s epic is an extremely important piece of literature. The excerpt used in this commentary takes on the subjects of sin and the punishment with regards to the atonement from God’s point of view. Milton’s states many of his own theological opinions but wants the reader to know that God is justified in everything that he does, and also wants them to know that man has free will.
The epic genre has existed for centuries and it isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. However, as culture and values change so does the epic tradition. Milton played a large role in introducing the Christian worldview to the epic tradition through the epic poem Paradise Lost. Instead of continuing the tradition through humanistic values, Milton applies his faith to the epic genre and allows Christian values and truths to permeate through the text of Paradise Lost.
Justice is one of the major building block that society is built upon. It gives people a sense of retribution when they have been wronged. In Dante’s Inferno, justice is served in the supernatural realm. Throughout this play, the reader is exposed to the inner working of hell and the nine circles of specialized punishment it is composed of. Justice, in Dante’s Inferno, differs from justice in the mortal world in that it is decided, not by humans, but by God. However, it is not God’s justice that is portrayed in this divine comedy. While this divine comedy depicts justice coming from God, the justice in the Inferno is based on Dante’s personal views of the severity of the sin and the sinner. This paper will examine this issue by looking into the life of Dante and the potential reasons for his rankings of the sin pertaining to specific circles of hell.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. “Hell-Heaven.” The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 638-651. Print.
There are other speeches of war in the epic that arouse the reader. One of the most significant is after Satan has made a meeting in the new Capitol of Hell, Pandemonium. "To have built Heaven high towers; Nor did he scape \ By all his engines but was headlong sent \ With industrious crew to build in Hell" (Milton 55). Following the rapid building, all the fallen angels gather for their meeting asking shall it be war or peace. "Their rising all at one was as the sound \ Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend \ With awful reverence prone, and as a god" (Milton 79). When his followers cheer Satan on, the reader notices how much he likes the attention. This is another sign of how Milton shows the significant role that Satan's pride plays in his decisions. In many different encounters Satan lets his pride interfere with his actions. In doing this, Satan begins to worry only about himself and the opinions his followers hold of him. Satan continues with the speech saying, "Should we again provoke \ Our Stronger, some worse way his wrath may find \ To our destruction" (Milton
In conclusion, Paradise Lost can be seen through a historically contextual lens that allows us to see the parallels between Milton’s life and experiences during the reign of Charles I, and the predominant themes in his epic poem. Many of the themes in Paradise Lost, from the broader situational occurrences to the behavior of individual character’s and their attitudes toward the situations in which they find themselves can be seen as directly influenced by Milton’s time as a Parliamentarian in 17th century England.
Paradise Lost is one of the finest examples of the epic tradition in all of literature. In composing this extraordinary work, John Milton was, for the most part, following in the manner of epic poets of past centuries: Barbara Lewalski notes that Paradise Lost is an "epic whose closest structural affinities are to Virgil's Aeneid . . . "; she continues, however, to state that we now recognize as well the influence of epic traditions and the presence of epic features other than Virgilian. Among the poem's Homeric elements are its Iliadic subject, the death and woe resulting from an act of disobedience; the portrayal of Satan as an Archillean hero motivated by a sense of injured merit and also as an Odyssean hero of wiles and craft; the description of Satan's perilous Odyssey to find a new homeland; and the battle scenes in heaven. . . . The poem also incorporates a Hesiodic gigantomachy; numerous Ovidian metamorphoses; an Ariostan Paradise of Fools; [and] Spenserian allegorical figures (Sin and Death) . . . . (3)